Firefighters investigating blaze at Norwich apartments

Fire officials continue to investigate the cause of fire early Friday morning that swept through portions of a Norwich apartment complex.

John Penney

:Fire officials continue to investigate the cause of fire early Friday morning that swept through portions of a Norwich apartment complex.

Firefighters responded to the Cedar Glen apartment complex, at 99 Cedar St., shortly before 5:30 a.m. On arrival, fire could be seen venting from top-floor windows, Norwich Fire Department Chief Ken Scandariato said. He said the third-floor fire burned though to the second level, causing heavy damage to two apartments and making a third temporarily uninhabitable.

Noreen Pease, Cedar Glen’s property manager, said Friday afternoon that residents were allowed to return to their homes in all except for three fire-damaged apartments in Building C, where the fire broke out. Those residents will be able to stay in vacant apartments elsewhere in the complex, she said.

The two most seriously damaged apartments will have to be totally rebuilt, Pease said.

Tom Rodrigue, who lives in Building C with his girlfriend, said he was awakened to the sound of police knocking on his door early Friday morning.

“They were slamming on the doors, but it was kind of weird, because the fire alarm system didn’t even go off,” he said. “All I was concerned with was getting all my animals.”

Rodrigue and his girlfriend got out with their four chinchillas and two of their cats. They found their third cat just outside the complex, he said.

Scandariato said a second alarm was called, allowing volunteer departments to stage in the event the fire spread.

The fire was extinguished by 6:30 a.m. No injuries were reported.

The American Red Cross was assisting three families initially displaced by the blaze, spokesman Paul Shipman said.

The complex was the location of a January standoff that ended with the suicide of resident Jason Razzino, 30. Norwich Officer 1st Class Jonathan Ley was hit by four shots at the beginning of an 11-hour standoff.